Using the inheritance of professional-social network information to facilitate organizational position changes

Abstract

A method for maintaining professional-social networks can begin with the automatic creation of a professional-social network for each member of an organization by a professional-social network tool based upon electronic communication analysis. Each member can have a uniquely-identified organizational position within an organizational model of the organization. A professional-social network can be comprised of nodes representing the member's contacts that can be connected to the member by relationships that express an interaction context. In response to a change from a currently-held first organizational position to a second organizational position for a specified member, the specified member can be dissociated from the professional-social network of the first organizational position. The specified member can then be associated with the professional-social network of the second organizational position. Tacit information contained within the professional-social network for performing the job functions of the second organizational position can be inherited by the specified member.

1 .- 9 . (canceled) 
     
     
         10 . A computer implemented system for maintaining professional-social networks comprising:
 one or more processors;   one or more memories storing program instructions executable on at least one of the one or more processors;   a plurality of organizational data defining a plurality of data items for a plurality of members of an organization;   an organizational model defining a plurality of uniquely-identified organizational positions held by the plurality of members of the organization, wherein each uniquely-identified organizational position has a plurality of job functions;   a plurality of contacts representing at least one of a person, a group of people, and another organization with whom a member interacts with to perform at least one job function defined for their organizational position, wherein a contact is at least one of a member of the organization and a non-member of the organization;   an electronic communications system, comprising at least one of the one or more processors and comprising at least one of the one or more memories, configured to convey a plurality of electronic communications between the plurality of members and the plurality of contacts; and   a professional-social network tool, comprising at least one of the one or more processors and comprising at least one of the one or more memories, configured to automatically create and maintain a professional-social network for each member based upon an automatic analysis of the plurality of electronic communications in which the member is included, wherein a professional-social network is comprised of nodes representing the member's contacts that are connected to the member by relationships that express an interaction context, wherein tacit information about a performance of the plurality of job functions of the member's organizational position is automatically captured within the professional-social network.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the electronic communication comprises at least one of an email message, an instant message, a text message, a file upload, a file download, an audio communication, a video communication, an audio and video communication, an online collaboration system communication, a social network posting, and a blog posting. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the professional-social network tool utilizes natural language processing techniques to perform the automatic analysis of the plurality of electronic communications. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 a user interface configured to act as an interaction mechanism for performing at least one of a viewing of the professional-social network, a correction of data contained for a node of the professional-social network, and a presenting of reports.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the user interface is further configured to allow members having a predefined minimum privilege level an ability to manually initiate a transference of the professional-social network containing tacit knowledge between members, wherein said transference overrides an existing organizational model structure, wherein the transference is capable of being assigned on at least one of a permanent and a temporary basis. 
     
     
         15 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising:
 computer usable program code configured to automatically create a professional-social network for each member of an organization based upon electronic communication analysis, wherein each member has a uniquely-identified organizational position within an organizational model of the organization, wherein the professional-social network is comprised of nodes representing contacts with whom a member interacts with to perform job functions defined for the organizational position associated with the member, wherein said nodes are connected to the member by relationships that express an interaction context, and, wherein a contact represents at least one of a person, a group of people, and another organization;   computer usable program code configured to automatically convert tacit knowledge of a member of the organization into an electronic form based on an analysis of electronic communication of the member, wherein the tacit knowledge comprises information regarding job functions associated with the organizational position held by the member;   computer usable program code configured to associate the converted tacit knowledge of the member with the professional-social network of the organizational position held by the member;   computer usable program code configured to, in response to a change from a first organizational position to a second organizational position for a specified member, dissociate the specified member from the professional-social network of the first organizational position, wherein the first organizational position represents the organizational position currently held by the specified member and the second organizational position represents the organizational position that the specified member is being moved into; and   computer usable program code configured to associate the specified member with the professional-social network of the second organizational position, wherein tacit information contained within the professional-social network for performing the job functions of the second organizational position is inherited by the specified member.   
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 computer usable program code configured to, in response to a removal of the specified member from the organization, dissociating the specified member from the professional-social network of the first organizational position, wherein the first organizational position represents the organizational position currently held by the specified member, wherein the specified member is not assigned to the second organizational position.   
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 computer usable program code configured to, in response to an addition of the specified member to the organization, assign the first organizational position to the specified member; and   computer usable program code configured to associate the specified member with the professional-social network of the first organizational position, wherein tacit information contained within the professional-social network for performing the job functions of the first organizational position is inherited by the specified member.   
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 computer usable program code configured to, in response to one of a dissociation and an association of the professional-social network, record historical ownership data for the professional-social network, wherein said historical ownership data comprises at least an identifier associated with the specified member and a date when the one of the dissociation and the association occurred.   
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein automatically creating the professional-social network further comprises:
 computer usable program code configured to monitor a plurality of electronic communications exchanged between a member and their contacts;   computer usable program code configured to analyze the plurality of electronic communications to determine nodes and relationships applicable to the professional-social network of each member addressed by the electronic communication, wherein the professional-social network contains tacit knowledge of the each member; and   computer usable program code configured to, when necessary, modify the professional-social network of each member addressed by the electronic communication to reflect the nodes and relationships of said analysis.   
     
     
         20 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein analyzing of the plurality of electronic communications further comprises:
 computer usable program code configured to determine a nature of an electronic communication, wherein said nature comprises at least one of professional and non-professional;   computer usable program code configured to, when the nature of the electronic communication is professional, identify members and non-members of the organization addressed as one of a sender and a recipient of the electronic communication based upon organizational data that defines current members of the organization, wherein non-members lack inclusion within said organizational data, and, wherein each identified member and non-member is considered as a node for potential inclusion within the members' professional-social networks;   computer usable program code configured to, for each identified member, ascertain a relationship between the member and each other node;   computer usable program code configured to compare the identified nodes and ascertained relationships to a current state of the member's professional-social network; and   computer usable program code configured to, when results of the comparison indicate differences, continue with the modification of the professional-social network for the member.   
     
     
         21 . The computer program product of  claim 20  further comprising:
 computer usable program code configured to automatically remove the electronic communication from the analysis when the nature of the electronic communication is non-professional. 
 
     
     
         22 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein modifying the professional-social network further comprises:
 computer usable program code configured to identify differences between a current state of the member's professional-social network and the nodes and relationships resulting from the analysis of the electronic communication;   computer usable program code configured to, for each difference, determine an inclusion importance of a difference based upon at least one of contextual indicators, organizational position, and the job functions of the organizational position; and   computer usable program code configured to, when the determined inclusion importance indicates an inclusion of the difference to the professional-social network, adjust the current state of the professional-social network to reflect the difference, wherein said adjustment comprises at least one of an addition of a node and relationship, a removal of the node and relationship, a change to secondary data associated with the node, a change to the relationship between the member and the node.   
     
     
         23 . The computer program product of  claim 22  further comprising:
 computer usable program code configured to associate more than one members of the organization with the same organizational position but with different professional-social networks. 
 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising:
 computer usable program code configured to determine a basic structure of the organization based on at least one of an organizational data, a member data, and an organizational model of the organization. 
 
     
     
         25 . The method of claim  1  further comprising:
 computer usable program code configured to automatically create a professional-social network for an organizational position based on analysis of communications exchanged between the members and the contacts. 
 
     
     
         26 . A computer implemented system for maintaining and transferring tacit knowledge in an organization, the computer implemented system comprising:
 one or more processors;   one or more memories storing program instructions executable on at least one of the one or more processors;   a professional-social network tool, comprising at least a subset of the program instructions, configured to:
 enable a member of the organization to perform electronic communication with contacts of the member, wherein the member is associated with one of a plurality of uniquely identified organizational positions; 
 automatically convert tacit knowledge of the member of the organization into an electronic form based on an analysis of electronic communication of the member with the contacts, wherein the tacit knowledge comprises information regarding job functions associated with the organizational position held by the member; 
 store the converted tacit knowledge in the electronic form in a data store; 
 dissociate the member from the converted tacit knowledge stored in the data store when the member leaves the organizational position, wherein the converted tacit knowledge remains associated with the organization position; and 
 associate the converted tacit knowledge stored in the data store with a member entering the organizational position. 
   
     
     
         27 . The computer implemented system of  claim 26 , wherein the professional-social network tool is further configured to:
 automatically create a professional-social network for an organizational position based on analysis of communications exchanged between the members and the contacts.   
     
     
         28 . The computer implemented system of  claim 26 , wherein the professional-social network tool is further configured to:
 associate more than one members of the organization with the same organizational position but with different professional-social networks.   
     
     
         29 . The computer implemented system of  claim 26 , wherein the professional-social network tool is further configured to:
 determine a basic structure of the organization based on at least one of an data, a member data, and an organizational model of the organization.